A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013.
A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013. Reuters

Apple's release date plans for 2015 reportedly involves two smartphone models - the iPhone 6S that will materialise spring time of the same year and the iPhone 7 that will take the flagship status of the iPhone 6 the following September.

The rationale for the iPhone 6S, according to Jerry Miller of Stabley Times, is to provide a companion product for the Apple Watch that is scheduled to come out either in late March or April 2015.

"Apple is hesitant about launching the iWatch in the spring of 2015 without a new iPhone to go along with it, as it could give hesitant consumers an excuse to wait on buying both until the fall," Miller reported.

Quite unlikely

However, the thought of Apple issuing a new iPhone model while the existing editions remain red hot seems puzzling, observers said. For one, the iPhone 6 is proving to be a money-maker for the tech giant and according to Ming-chi Kuo, both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will account to around 50 million buys by the end of December 2014.

And becoming worried that the Apple Watch will not sell as expected because consumers would want a new phone to go with the timepiece seems far-fetched, Cult of Mac said in a report, adding that the report at best is "a crazy rumour."

If indeed the Apple Watch will require a partner iPhone then it would not hut the tech giant to merely delay the former's rumoured Q2 2015 release date and sync it with the iPhone 7 that is believed set for introduction September of the same year.

Upgraded iPhone 6 variant

What is more believable, according to Forbes, is the issuance of an iPhone 6 variant that will boast of upgraded hardware and software.

One solid possibility is a 32GB iPhone 6 will join the current line up next year, added the same Forbes report.

And as indicated in recent reports, this variant would bring out of the box an upgraded iOS 8 that will accommodate pairing and full functionalities with the Apple Watch. Apple fans are expecting the release of iOS 8.2 and 8.3 in the early part of 2015 before the software is replaced by iOS 9.

And that iOS 9 is widely perceived as the power behind the iPhone 7 that Apple is rumoured to have scheduled for a September 2015 release date, at the earliest.